Since that time, science has developed and has come up with its own theory called ‘the Big Bang’. This theory says that an explosion caused the universe to happen. Although this is enough to convince some people that God does not exist, for others, it brings up the question of what caused the explosion to happen and how the world could be created in one bang.
This theory is called the cosmological argument and I think it is a good line of reasoning, but it’s not really enough to prove that God exists and it probably wouldn’t be enough to convert an atheist into a theist.
Another reason for why people believe in God is the concept of ‘the grand design’. This concept was first considered, again by a philosopher named William Paley who lived in the 16th century. He alleged that objects are good at what they do because they have been well designed because they have been designed with precision and care. He exemplifies this with the model of a watch, and how the cogs and springs all worked together. An example other people have come up with is an iPod. It is good at playing music and looks nice because designers have spent time designing it.
Paley perceived that this is true for not only man made products but also for things in nature. For example, the water cycle works well and without fail and makes sure all the right types of water are in the right places and the right times.
Then he contemplated on this question; who could have designed all the parts of nature to work well and to work well together? It would have to be someone who was omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent. These are words which can only be used to describe God’s attributes. No one can be benevolent because it is humanly impossible to get along with and love everybody, and while you might care for people, you can’t truly love everyone. No one is omnipotent because there are many things that even the most powerful person on Earth cannot control many things such as the weather, people’s thoughts, their beliefs and the list goes on. Furthermore no one is all knowing because we cannot know everything, and some things are opinion. There are many questions left unanswered, such as the one we are trying to deal with and it will never be answered as no one knows. You might be able to come to a conclusion of whether or not you believe God exists but we will never really know for sure. Therefore no one is omniscient, omnipotent or benevolent and consequently the only person who could have designed the universe is God. This is the same answer that Paley came up with, and after him, so have millions of other people.
This is the Teleological argument. Although this is a rather powerful argument, there are some glitches in them at first. Atheists and agnostics often ask the question of Who created God? And the answer to that is that nothing/no one did. He has been God since eternity and there is nowhere where the time line stops. Another concept which holds atheist and agnostics back is the question ‘If God is so almighty then how come there is so much suffering and deformed people in the world?’ The reason for this is that for people to admire and be appreciative of their fortunes, they have to be able to see what they’ve got that other people haven’t because if everyone was rich and beautiful no one would find it a blessing to have those things, and while there are people suffering, other people can be compassionate to them by helping with aid and love Some people might even say ‘The provide complete explanations for apparent design’. But although this is true, the ‘person’ who designed them in the first place is responsible for that and also for its evolution, and that ‘person’ is God.
I think the cosmological and teleological put together is enough to actually sway an atheist into the side of theism and to maybe even make them very strong believers.
If that still doesn’t convince an atheist or agnostic that God does exist, then hopefully this will. This perception is quite controversial, the concept of evil in the world. Some people may say that ‘if God is so omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent then He would know that evil was happening in the world, He would stop it happening and He would be able to stop it happening, therefore God does not exist’ This statement says that the idea of God, the way that He is described does not fit in with the way that the world appears to be. This statement is also completely contradicting to the actual reason for pain and suffering and impoverishment in the world.
Theists do not repudiate the existence of evil in the world, but explain it in a number of ways, to show that God allows evil to happen for a number of reasons. The first of these is that in order for there to be good in the world, and for humans to appreciate it there must also be bad in the world otherwise how would we know what to call good, and act of goodness by someone would seem worthless. The second is that God is punishing people for bad things they have done, though we might not necessarily understand what the bad thing was (e.g. when a baby dies people might not understand why). Another quite abstract and hard to understand reason is that there are more parts to God’s ‘plan’ that we cannot understand because we are not omniscient.
One thing that is very important in religion and all aspects in life is how we interpret things. For example, if a religious person wakes up in the middle in the night, and they stop a robbery, they would take that as a great sign that God does exist, whereas an atheist or agnostic would just say it was a coincidence or that it was just their instinct. The religious person would count this as an experience of God, and having their faith ‘restored’ would then probably continue to feel his presence, but that would just be her state of mind. Another example is if you look at a smiley face the right way up, it’s smiling, but turn upside down and it’s a sad face. Usually we would choose a side we like and look at it that way. That is the same thing for religion. We take a piece of evidence, see which way suits us and look at the world with that perspective. There is no right or wrong, but we should think carefully before we make a decision and I hope this dissertation has opened you up to the possibilities of the existence of God.
In conclusion, I believe God does exist, for many reasons as I have elaborated on and I think that other people should give it a chance before saying that God doesn’t exist. I hope this essay has helped you in re focusing your views on God.
